Social Impact Designer and Creative Leader

I’m a designer raised in an era of Lisa Frank, Gecko Hawaii and Trapper Keepers and now find myself cringing at what I fear is their impending return. I have welcomed plaid back into my wardrobe with open arms and am willing to consider the re-emerging trend of neon (moderately and tastefully applied), but I draw the line at dayglow animals.

I'm a recent graduate from the MICA Social Design program where we practiced design research, critical analysis of social problems and collaborative, human centered approaches to design. I spent my time in the program considering the way that design can be employed as a strategy to inform the development of interventions, rather than only as a tool to help produce a potentially ill-planned end product.

As an undergraduate in design at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, I aimed to understand the power of messaging and branding in a political context and apply it to social and environmental issues.

Through my work with sustainable building, government transparency and public arts mapping organizations, I have evolved from a print designer to a web designer working in user experience design, project management and front-end development. Most recently, I have served as creative director for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that uses technology to advocate for government transparency.

Right now, I am considering scale. Climate change, where global buy-in and sweeping behavioral change are necessary to make a significant impact, is dependent on scalability. How can collaboratively designed solutions to specific and localized problems act as prototypes for a healthy global future and how do those ideas and methods get translated in a way that allows them to transplant into new economies and new cultures.

I am currently looking for full time employment and am available for freelance projects.